Friday, February 21, 2014

With Feeling – A Basically Bare Project

Good morning everyone! Today I want to share how I inked, stamped, stenciled, gesso’d, and painted a Basically Bare Krafty Keepsake Plain Jane album. This album comes with a front and back cover made of cardboard, four craft envelopes, and a chipboard divider. It was tons of fun getting inky with this really cool album.

I started by gessoing the cover and then spraying it with Art Anthology Studio Blue, Honey Bee, and Lark colorations. Next I stenciled over it with a shattered stencil and silver embossing paste. The resulting cover is beautiful but very hard to photograph as the silver embossing paste reflects any bit of light.

For the inside cover, I again gesso’d the cardboard, this time spraying it with Art Anthology Colorations in Cinnamon Twist, Plush, and Juicy. I then stenciled over the mists with modeling paste I tinted with Rainbow Ink, using a damask stencil and a stripes stencil.

I then grabbed my stamps and had fun stamping the front and back of the first envelope. I colored the sea grass and fish using Copic markers.

I apologize for the dark spot on the photo. It wasn’t until I was editing my pictures that I realized that I had a shadow & of course, there was not time to take another. I grabbed more stamps and had fun stamping and coloring with a combination of Copics and Distress Inks on the 2nd envelope.

For the middle divider, I painted the front side of the chipboard with Art Anthology Velvet in Truffle, Mardi Gras, and Orchid and then covered it with Distress Crackle Rock Candy. The back of the divider was painted with Art Anthology Velvet in Cotton Candy, Kona, and Fiesta, then covered with Distress Crackle Rock Candy. The stamps are from Stampers Anonymous and were stamped with archival ink before spreading on the crackle.

For this next set of envelopes, I decided to pull out my circle graph and ceiling tile stencils and used them with some Art Anthology Velvets in Terracotta, and Basil. The stenciled graph was highlighted with Red Hot UTEE.

More stenciling with paints using Art Anthology Velvets in Basil, Desire, and Reef with fern and rain drop stencils. To keep my paint from leaking under the stencils, I used a makeup sponge, dabbed it into the paint, then pounced it on my craft sheet a couple of times to remove most of the paint. This keeps seepage to a minimum.

For the inside of the back cover, I first gesso’d the cardboard then sprayed on Art Anthology Colorations in Glorious, Fern Leaf, Denim, and Lark. Next I used my jumbled stencil and stenciled over that with Golden Clear Granular Gel colored with Rainbow Ink. This was followed with a dot stencil and Distress Ink to add random circles. For the outside of the back cover, I once again gesso’d the cardboard and then sprayed it with Art Anthology Colorations in Lark, Honey Bee, and Studio Blue. Then I stenciled in large raindrops using silver embossing paste.

Okay, honestly, this was a lot of work. I didn’t complete it in a few hours, but it was fun and highly rewarding. I experimented with different mediums and tools and had a blast. Now, grab you one of our great albums, your pastes, paints, stencils, inks, and the like, and go have yourself some fun!